Google Maps on Android will get a brilliant split-screen Google Street View feature. The new feature will divide your screen into the standard route view, and Street View – all on a single display.
The split-view feature will work on Google Maps for Android 10.59.1 and is different from 'Live View', which is an augmented reality tool to show you the direction of travel by overlaying arrows. The split feature, which has only been available on the desktop before this, will now roll out to Android mobile users, where it’ll be more at home in the field helping you get from A to B.
A reddit user (via Tom's Guide) spotted the nifty update; the beauty of this feature is how it smooths over those final few minutes of your journey. Maybe the café is tucked away in a hidden alcove, but Google Maps claims you’re already there? Ever arrived at your destination but it doesn’t look like it's supposed to? This new feature should help steer you to the right place.
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The feature works automatically when you place a pin on the map. The only exception is if you enter Street View through a location’s official listing, which will initiate the standard full-screen mode.
Google's update now includes an expand/ condense button in the bottom right corner, which closes this map to show street-level imagery highlighted in blue. Users can select any of the blue circles scattered around the map to jump to that location: this shows not only the direction you’re facing but also the surroundings. Of course, if you’d prefer to use your maps in the normal way, you can switch back to the standard view.
The new Google Maps feature offers a better navigation experience, immersing you in your location’s wider surroundings to help clarify those final few moments of a journey where people get lost. If you use your phone in landscape mode, the feature works in this view as well and is sure to be a useful innovation for users as lockdowns ease.
It’s an impressive addition from Google, saving you time hopping in and out of Street View to the map every time you wanted to jump to a different location. If you're looking for some glitzy new hardware to run this feature, then look no further than T3's best Android phones guide to save you the hassle of selecting the right model to suit your needs.
iPhone users are yet to get this, but hopefully, the innovation will arrive on iOS very soon. Google has had a busy month what with the new iCloud password syncing extension that will be added to Chrome, and a Google Chrome update that checks passwords for weaknesses.
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Source: Tom's Guide
